Lenka S. reviewed on 8/20/2015 + 829 more book reviews

When I read the premise of this book, I was very enthusiastic about it and excited to read it. Female cop, investigating bizarre murders of three geneticists, and weird, spooky intelligent trees that are ruthlessly taking over large parts of the suburbs.......

Unfortunately, the actual execution leaves much to be desired. The "modern" storyline of Dora is the most interesting part of the book. She has a really bizarre husband and mother-in-law, and the storyline of how she ended up tangled up with these two was interesting, but it could have been more developed and explained in more detail of how and why an experienced, competent cop with great observation skills could fall into a shallow relationship with a nasty man who apparently just wants her to cook and clean for him. The author ends up doing some handwaving about how it was an easily broken "habit spell" that put her under his control. And it's not really clear why the bad guy wanted her in the first place. Something is muttered about her being a virgin and how he needs one for a spell, but that part of the storyline never pans out, and it ends up feeling like a empty contrivance. The biologist boyfriend was cool, but not nearly developed enough, and there doesn't seem to be much reason for him to actually be around...........

Parts of the fantasy storyline was okay, but I kept getting lost in all the different races, and found myself not caring enough to keep track of them all. I ended up skipping large parts of this storyline, which I rarely do, but most of that stuff just seemed to be empty filler without much effect on the plot. The most annoying part of the book, however, is the blatant political agends that the author is intent on hammering into the reader's head. The total lack of balance in the message was absolutely cringeworthy......
For instance, the trees, which are overall portrayed as understandable manifestations of mother nature just taking back what is hers, end up lovingly murdering babies and small children because their parents committed the sin of having too many kids. Very little is said about the parents of these kids, except for a few remarks about how some of them are whining about it a bit. They're pretty much portrayed as suburban yuppies who just got what was coming to them. While I have some sympathy for the idea of overpopulation, I'm pretty sure there are better solutions than quietly murdering kids. The fact that the heroine doesn't even really bat an eyelash that her beloved trees are committing such atrocious acts is monsterous. She just seems to shrug and say something about how she's sure they weren't in any pain when they died. Oh, well.
The last quarter of the book is just one big political agenda about women's rights and the environment. China Mieville has said that a fiction novel is a very inefficient and poor tool for promoting political propoganda, and I'm very inclined to agree with him. It just seems like the author could have gotten her point across better if she'd been more subtle instead of hitting the reader over the head with the Meaning of the Story. More time should have been spent making all the unplausible events feel realistic and less time on pointing out to the reader why talking animals are preferable to the scourge of the Earth that is humanity.

And lastly there was the issue of the SULTAN'S HAREM and its culture imbeded soo deeply into the future world and shoved down our throats as if that is the one perfect way to live in balance with everything. Of all the cultures and religions the future could bring, she, the author could have invented, she copies the worst of our past and presents it to us all polished and flawless on a silver platter as her own presentation of perfection.....

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